THE centre is reportedly planning withdrawal of army from the Kashmir Valley in a fresh sign that the situation in the province is returning to normal after decades. The significant development follows three and a half years after the withdrawal of the special status of Kashmir.
The withdrawal will be done in a phased manner. The government is expected to start with districts where militancy has ended. The CRPF and Jammu and Kashmir Police will fill in the space vacated by the Army.
The decision, the reports say, has followed a careful assessment of the ground situation which has remarkably improved in recent years. Only the militancy which seemed to have been holding up so far has now also been sufficiently reigned in. The UT is now far more peaceful than it was before 2019, another condition for elections. The home minister Amit Shah recently highlighted in an interview that there has been a drastic decrease in terrorism-related incidents in the UT following the revocation of Article 370, and that development efforts in the region are contributing to the fast improving situation. He pointed to the figures on the evolving situation which vindicate the government.
A recent MHA review highlighted the progress made in J&K over the last year on economic and security fronts. The union territory, the report said, witnessed “a 54 percent reduction in terrorist incidents, a 22 percent drop in recruitment of militants and 84 percent decline in the deaths of security forces.” In real terms, the militancy related violence has decreased from 417 incidents in 2018 to 229 in 2021 while the number of slain security personnel had dropped from 91 in 2018 to 42 in 2022.
One biggest indicator of the new normalcy has been the growth of tourism. And last year, number of tourists visiting Kashmir broke all previous records. According to the tourist officials, the number of tourists Kashmir received in 2022 is the highest so far, beating by far even the pre-turmoil period record.
On the development front, the report says that the BJP government at the centre has brought in an investment of Rs 56,000 crores in just three years. Under the Prime Minister’s Development Package, the report mentions, Jammu and Kashmir got about 63 projects in hydroelectricity at a cost of Rs 80,000 crore. The fruits of these projects are likely to become visible in the coming years. And by then, hopefully, there wouldn’t even be the need to deploy CRPF across the Valley.
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